New DVD/CD Player

[Ninanina]

Picked up an Arcam DVD/CD player which uses Wolfson WM8740 DACs for both DVD and CD playback

Really enjoying it as a stand alone cd player and the dvd bit is superb as well. I believe it was about £1k when new and even though it's pretty old it is like new and works fantastic... I have so many dvd/cd players now.... Let me count them up....

My oldest is a Marantz CD50 SE which I purchased new in the 80's
Pioneer DV 717 x 2... one to use as a transport and one as a 'spare'
Pioneer PD-S505 Precision
My new Arcam

That's 5 now... they are breeding I think.... obviously my weak point

[Stratmangler]

The thing to bear in mind with some Arcam equipment is that the DAC chipset is of little relevance.
The implementation on the other hand is of major significance - Arcam brought in dCS as consultants, and the result was the very highly rated Ring DAC technology.

Which machine do you have?

[Ninanina]

The thing to bear in mind with some Arcam equipment is that the DAC chipset is of little relevance.
The implementation on the other hand is of major significance - Arcam brought in dCS as consultants, and the result was the very highly rated Ring DAC technology.

Which machine do you have?

Hi Chris it's the DiVA DV79 and it sounds surprising good as a stand-alone cd...not yet tried it with the AN Dac though

I believe the implementation is much the same as in the fairly highly regarded CD73... even Mr Lampizator rates the 73, and anything Arcam using the same Wolfson....

[walpurgis]

About twelve years ago I auditioned the CD73 against the Meridian 507 at Audio T in High Wycombe. The Arcam was nice, better than the equivalently priced Cyrus that was also demoed (can't recall model number), but the more expensive Meridian won hands down. It was just bigger sounding, sweeter and clearer. I bought it and still have it.

[Ninanina]

I am sure the Meridian sounds better but the Arcam was so inexpensive it's a joke...

A while ago I had a Meridian 506 and while it was very good it wasn't a patch on pretty much anything used as a transport with the AN Dac, so was sold on...

I must try the Pioneer PD-S505 Precision again as well, it's been tucked away for a while now

[Stratmangler]

There's no mention of Ring DAC in the manual, so there's no dCS sorcery taking place.
IIRC they used the Ring DAC tech in the FMJ players.
That's not to say that your DVD player doesn't sound great - I'm sure it does. The Arcam players always had a decent and well balanced sound. And yours should have HDMI output too, so it should integrate well with recent TVs if they have an older spec HDMI input.

Funnily enough, the only discs that get played around here are DVD/Bluray discs, and games discs.
Everything else is streamed, but the video stuff is still from silver beer mat. There's so much data on the movie discs that it's not worth the effort of sticking them on server.

[walpurgis]

There are three versions of the 506 Bev and they do sound different.

[Ninanina]

There are three versions of the 506 Bev and they do sound different.

I knew you were gonna get me on that one Geoff .. I think it was the 506.20

[Ninanina]

Well I've just put the Pioneer PD-S505 Precision back in the system, as a stand alone player, as it's been tucked away under the bed for months

I forgot how good this cd player is...

I have know idea what Tom Evans did to the standard 505 player but it all seems good to me...

That's all without the use of the AN Dac

[walpurgis]

I told you they were good Bev. The sound is free of the 'digitalness' many CD players seem to suffer from.